I thought we played a great first half and then got lazy and took our foot off the gas in the 2nd half with the giant lead & the walks on in.

quote:The Vols took care of business tonight the way you’d expect a top-10 team to handle a Division II opponent tonight, winning 87-48. Tennessee’s defense completely smothered the visitors, forcing turnovers in bunches, which the Vols proved adept at turning into points on the other end.

Tennessee shot a smooth 55% from the floor, which would normally be the storyline, but the Vols’ (first half) defense was even better.

The Vols set the tone early on that end of the floor. Tusculum managed just 14 first half points on 25% shooting and turned the ball over 16 times in the first 20 minutes as Tennessee jumped out to a 42-14 lead.

Typical of Barnes though, the head coach was more upset about the drop off he saw from his team on the defensive end in the second half when Tusculum managed to shoot 41% from the floor and score. While that seemed to be at least partly a result of Barnes playing all four of his walk-ons in the latter stages of the game.

Tusculum by the numbers: Held to 32% shooting on the night Held to 29% 3 PT shooting

2nd half got a little sloppy and showed that we've got some things that need to be cleaned up. William's rebounding numbers being one of them and not letting the foot off the gas despite a big lead being another. Overall happy to see us be a veteran team and be able to run 12 deep if needed. We're capable of doing some big things this season if we can stay composed and be consistent.

Appreciate it. I'm excited for the pre season tournaments to kick off and get the chance to watch some good basketball. We've got some big games early that I hope we can win and represent the conference well in. Nice win tonight for your guys.